In what I see as the second major blow to her authority as Speaker, Pelosi will not be installing Rep Alcee "Impeached but not Convicted" Hastings to the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

Hastings, Harman Rejected for Chairmanship: Pelosi Decides Against Both of House Intelligence Panel's Top Two Democrats

House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided against naming either Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, or Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (Fla.), the panel's No. 2 Democrat, to chair the pivotal committee next year.

The decisions came despite lobbying by conservative Democrats on Harman's behalf and a full-throttled campaign by Hastings to overcome the stigma of the 1988 impeachment that drove him from his federal judgeship.

The fight over the top spot on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has exposed the kind of factional politics that bedeviled House Democrats before they were swept from control in 1994. Harman, a moderate, strong-on-defense "Blue Dog" Democrat, had angered liberals with her reluctance to challenge the Bush administration's use of intelligence. Hastings, an African American, was strongly backed by the Congressional Black Caucus but was ardently opposed by the Blue Dogs, who said his removal from the bench disqualifies him from such a sensitive post.

Complicating the matter was Pelosi's relationship with black Democrats. Earlier this year, she enraged the Black Caucus by removing one of its members, Rep. William J. Jefferson (La.), from the Ways and Means Committee after court documents revealed that federal investigators looking into allegations of bribery had found $90,000 in cash neatly bundled in his freezer.

Darn it sure does suck when you have to deal with people on the basis of their actions and not their race doesn't it?  To the race baiting democrats this was a terrible thing, but to most people it was a simply logical thing.

What makes this so odd is that Pelosi is one of the democrats who voted to Impeach Hastings after the accusations of bribery came to light.  So a few years back he was unfit to be a judge, but now suddenly he was worthy to be the Chairmen of a very influential committee?

I will never understand that, any more then I will every fathom how people in Maryland Massachussets can vote for the bloated idiot named Kennedy, who will likely stay in the Senate till his liver gives out.

Thank God Senators have the best health care available to Americans.

Hot Air makes a ripe observation:

Between this and his letter blaming the “misinformed fools” of the conservative punditocracy for his troubles, I’m starting to wonder if Pelosi bagged him simply for being too much of a petulant jackass.

“I have been informed by the speaker-elect that I will not serve as the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 110th Congress,” he said. “I am obviously disappointed with this decision.” Hastings won election to Congress in 1992, after having been impeached and removed from office as a federal judge. He concluded his statement by saying, “Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet.”

Good point.

Sister Toldjah considers the political strategy:

Pelosi won’t back foe Calif. Rep. Jane Harman, so one of those mentioned above will be a likely pick. This is a shrewd, politically calculated move by Pelosi, which may backfire with the CBC, but regardless, it was a decision she needed to make. An impeached federal judge has no place being chair of any committee in Congress. For that matter, he really has no place in Congress - period, but there’s no accounting for taste amongst Hastings’ constituents, apparently.

And Ed Driscoll has a similar conclusion to mine:

We're still in the preseason, but that's O for 2 for Speaker-to-be-Pelosi, incidentally.

Yup.

In a Northwest twist, Rep Norm Dicks is one of the new contenders for the Chair position.

Crossposted from LSU